Golden Bells
by CallyFox
Summary: Four bells can save the world from destruction. Sesshomaru would do anything to protect his lands from this evil, even if that means getting the assistance of a certain miko.
1. Bad Day

Disclaimer: I own no InuYasha characters. I am only going to put this on this page

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Kagome was having a bad day. It wasn't one of those 'I forgot my lunch on the way to school' days'. No, it was much worse. It was more like a day where by the end; you simply wanted to strangle anyone and everyone who came near you.

She had gotten up extremely late because yesterday, she had thrown her alarm clock into the wall in hopes that if the alarm stopped, so would school for the day. So, finding you had less then ten minutes to get to school, on a Monday no less, was not the most fun experience.

She then took the worlds fastest shower, grabbed her nearest uniform (which she would later on in the day, find out was on backwards), trip down the stairs, and rush out the door. She didn't have time to look for her bike, so she did the next best thing. Run like hell and pray to get to school on time.

Kagome had arrived at school with only a minute or so to get to class. She sprinted to her locker, practically ripped the locker door off its hinges, threw her backpack and unneeded materials in, slammed it shut, and sprinted once again in a mad rush to get to class. Kagome made it to class…….seconds after the bell rang.

The rest of the school day was just as fun. Kagome tripped over, ran into, and knocked over more things in that one school day then she ever had before. She had come out of school that day glaring at anything that moved or thought of moving, as she stormed home.

As Kagome trudged up the large amount of steps at her shrine, she planned what she would do when she finally got inside. A nice long bath followed by the unusually large amount of homework she had been assigned, then finally, a wonderful nap. Yes, Kagome planned to turn her horrible day around. So when she reached the top of the shrine steps, her annoyance and anger doubled when she saw InuYasha sitting, arms crossed and glaring in front of her door. This resulted in a huge yelling match, and after a large number of 'sits', InuYasha picked Kagome up, kicking and screaming, and jumped into the well.

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After a fruitless day of shard hunting, and the sky beginning to darken, Kagome asked InuYasha to stop for the day. This brings us to present time, and the beginning of an argument.

The shard hunting group was tired and being forced on by a determined half-demon. Kagome glared at InuYasha from her spot on Kirara.

'I'm tired of this.' Kagome thought angrily.

"InuYasha!" She shouted "We need to stop for the day."

"Feh, were not stopping. The longer we rest, the more jewel shards Naraku will get."

"You can't walk us on forever. Not everyone has demon strength."

Miroku sighed. "Here we go again." He looked slyly over at Sango.

"Hey Sango." Sango looked over at him warily.

"How about we make a little wager?"

Sango raised an eyebrow. "What kind of wager?"

"Well, if we don't stop in the next hour, I get to rub your butt once, slap free."

"What if we do stop in the next hour?"

"I'll polish Hirokutsu for you."

Sango appeared to consider this carefully. She would look from the arguing couple to the monk next to her and back again. She finally sighed and said "I don't know why I'm saying this, but you've got a deal."

Sango and Miroku looked back at the other members of the group. InuYasha and Kagome were still bickering and were showing no signs of stopping any time soon. Something seemed to be missing though.

"Hey guys." A child's voice said from behind Sango.

Sango and Miroku whipped their heads back to find themselves staring into the cute face of Shippo.

"You scared us Shippo!" Sango breathed, holding a hand over her heaving chest. She had forgotten that Shippo had been asleep behind her.

"Sorry." Shippo said bashfully, rubbing the back of his head. He then grinned up at the two adults. "I heard about your bet," He said crossing his arms and shaking his head. "and I am disappointed in the two of you. You made a bet without asking me if I wanted a part in it."

Sango and Miroku looked down at Shippo with blank faces before Miroku broke out in a grin. Sango saw it and looked at him disapprovingly.

"Well you should have said so sooner! What's your wager?" Miroku said gleefully.

"I bet that the fight will end in the next twenty-five seconds. If I'm right, I get to sit on both of your heads for thirty minutes."

Miroku shook his paw and said "you've got a deal!"

So the three started to watch the fight between Kagome and InuYasha again, with Shippo counting the seconds out loud.

"One…Two…Three…" Kagome had grabbed InuYasha by the ear. "Nine…Ten…Eleven…" There was a long volley of curses coming from InuYasha, most of which were "wench and bitch." "Eighteen…nineteen…twenty…" Kagome had let go of InuYasha to reach inside of her bag. "Twenty-two…twenty-three…twenty-four…" Kagome was holding up a bag of Ramen threatening never to cook it again if they didn't stop for camp. "Twenty-five."

"Oi!" InuYasha called to the three. "We're setting camp up here." He then sat next to Kagome and watched her prepare the Ramen.

"Wow!" Miroku breathed while looking at Shippo with open admiration. "How did you get that right?"

Shippos' chest puffed up with pride. "It was easy. I just watched all the other fights between the two of them and now, I can tell when a fight is going to end."

Sango rubbed the top of Shippos' head. "As much as I don't like to see someone as young as you gamble, you did really well. You are very smart for your age."

Shippo smiled and jumped onto Sangos' head. "Now I get to sit on both of your heads! Miroku, you get to go next so don't try to get away from me." Sango and Miroku rolled their eyes at Shippo.

"You should go get some firewood." Sango told Miroku, while eyeing the hand that was creeping closer to her butt. Miroku sighed but did as he was told.

Sango got up and walked over to Kagome. She could feel Shippo shifting around with each step she took. As soon as she reached Kagome, Kagome burst out in laughter.

Sango glared at her. "What's so funny?" She asked.

"Ahhh Sango, you really know how to make me feel better."

"What!" Sango asked again.

"I've never seen Shippo sit on your head before. It's really funny!"

Shippo smiled and jumped off of Sangos' head and into Kagomes' arms. He looked up at Sango and said "Don't' tell Miroku I'm letting you off early. He still has to have his whole thirty minutes."

Kagome looked at Sango and Shippo questioningly. "What are you two talking about?"

Sango and Shippo shared quick glances and smiled at Kagome. "Nothing!" They both said.

"Alright." Kagome said, not believing them in the least. "I'm going to take a bath. Don't tell Miroku okay."

"Okay!" They both said as Shippo jumped back onto Sangos' head.

'I wonder what they're up to.' Kagome thought as she walked to the hot spring.


	2. Messenger

Sesshomaru walked steadily down one of the many corridors that lead to his main conference room. He had received word earlier that day from Jaken that one of his most loyal messengers was returning today with valuable information. His messenger had been gone for about a year to see if he could find any important news on the neighboring lands. Sesshomaru didn't really care what went on outside his lands, but it was best to be well informed at all times.

He stopped for a moment at a near by window when he heard a squeal coming from his front garden. He looked out and saw his young ward, Rin, happily chasing Jaken in circles while trying to put a flower necklace on him. Sesshomaru noticed that Jaken already had two or three of the necklaces. If he was anyone else, he would have smiled at the sight. He didn't, but that couldn't stop the proud, fatherly feeling he got when he saw how easily Rin could catch Jaken. Though he would never admit it, he was very fond of Rin.

Sesshomaru continued walking until he reached a tall set of double doors. They were a plain brown color with a crescent moon on each side. These were the doors to his office and only the most important beings were allowed inside. He opened them and walked inside to see his messenger sitting in one of the chairs.

The messengers name was Zerin and he was a raccoon demon. Zerin stood almost as tall as Sesshomaru himself and had a long, bushy, ringed tail. He also had a dark area surrounding his eyes, like all raccoons had, and pointed ears.

Sesshomaru sat behind his desk and waited for Zerin to start talking.

Zerin sat there looking at him blankly before saying "So, how has your year been?"

Sesshomaru glared at him.

"Alright, alright," Zerin said, waiving his hands in front of him. "About a month and a half passed after you sent me out and I had found nothing of interest, so I was coming back when I passed this small village in the Eastern lands."

Zerins' face grew serious and Sesshomaru listened closely for what he was about to say next.

"I walked in and found that the villagers' bodies were put out in long line from the beginning of the village to the end of it.They had been mutilated to the point where it was hard to tell what they were anymore. I had looked around the village carefully, and no one had entered any of the huts. So nothing was stolen."

Sesshomaru wondered what had caused this. Usually a demon wouldn't attack unless they had a good reason, or, if they went this low, attack a village and slaughter just to find something of value.

Zerin had stopped and paused, remembering what he had seen.

"Continue." Sesshomaru said after a minute or so.

"Right, well I went looking around to find out what had caused this when I came across another village along the Southeastern border. The villagers had been slaughtered in a similar manner. Once again I looked around and nothing had been stolen. There was something different about this village though. There was a man on the steps of a hut, a monk to be exact. He was on the brink of death when I asked him what had happened. All he managed to say was, 'all for the bells.'

'Bells?' Sesshomaru thought. He didn't know of any bells that were important.

"What did you find out about these bells?" He asked.

"Well, it took about another six months to find anything about bells. I ended up in a library about a mile from the ocean in the Eastern lands. There was this old book in a red binding that caught my attention. It spoke of four golden bells that could decide the fate of the world. I didn't believe it, but continued reading anyways. It said that if someone held all four bells at once, they would get complete control of anything they choose."

Sesshomaru thought about this for a second.

'A couple of bells could take my lands away from me? Impossible.'

"I know that look." Zerin said, looking at Sesshomaru. "You're thinking 'there's no way a few bells could do that' right?"

Sesshomarus' gaze hardened.

"Right!" Zerin said, smiling slightly. "Well, you're wrong. They could do just that. I had read farther into the red book and found out that the bells had caused the separation of the lands. You know, like now we have the Western, Southern, Northern, and Eastern lands. Thousands of years ago it was all one big landmass. There weren't any of those. Ahhh, my grandfather was alive then and he would always tell us this wonderful story. Would you like to hear it?"

"No. I already knew that there were no cardinal directions back then. What else did you find out about the bells?"

"You're no fun." Zerin said sighing. "Anyhow, there was a war going on back then for who would rule this land. A demon, who was desperately trying to stop the war, found the four bells by accident. He 'wished' on these bells and he created the four ruling lands, giving power to himself, and his three most trusted friends. It's said that after he did that the bells flew out, over the ocean and were never seen again."

"What was this demons name?"

"I don't know. It didn't say. That's all I found out." Zerin paused; unsure weather or not he should go on. "I think you should go after them."

Sesshomaru looked at him blankly. Or, slightly more then he usually did.

'These bells could grant someone the power to take over my lands.' Sesshomaru thought. 'I will not allow that to happen.'

"I will get these bells." Sesshomaru stated as he stood up.

"About that," Zerin said nervously.

Sesshomaru glared at him.

"You need the aid of a miko to find these bells."

"I do not need the help of a human to find them."

"Yes, you do. Just think about it this way, the stronger miko you find, the faster you will get the job done."

Sesshomaru grudgingly accepted. An idea quickly popped into his mind and his eyes took on a wicked gleam. He might be more open with Zerin then he was with anyone else, but that didn't mean he would open up all the way and wickedly smile.

"You will stay here and look after Rin."

"What!" Zerin yelled, surprised. "Isn't that what Jaken is for?"

"Jaken is not capable of watching Rin. You are. You will see that no harm comes to her."

Zerin stood there gaping as Sesshomaru walked to his open balcony.

Sesshomaru summoned his cloud and was a few feet in the air when he stopped and said "Consider it this way, the stronger your resolve is, the faster the time will go by." Then he was off flying away to get his miko.

"Did he just make a joke?" Zerin asked himself quietly, putting his hand to his forehead to see if he was sick. "He did."


	3. Fox Trouble

Kagome walked back to the camp feeling much better then she had earlier.

'Wow, it's amazing how a bath helps solve almost anything.' She thought.

She walked into the camp site and was greeted by a very hyper Shippo almost immediately.

"Kagome!" He shouted, jumping into her arms.

"Hi Shippo." Kagome said while ruffling his hair.

"I had lots of fun with Sango, Miroku, and InuYasha while you were gone!"

"Oh did you now?"

Kagome looked over at the three others and almost laughed when she saw them. Sango was sitting high atop a tree, glaring at Miroku with Kirara sitting on her lap, Miroku was buried up to his waist in dirt and had lumps all over his head, and InuYasha was glaring at Shippo from his spot next to the fire. His hair was strung with noodles and he had chocolate smeared all over his face.

"Lady Kagome?" She heard Miroku ask. "Could you help me up? I seem to be stuck."

This time Kagome did laugh as she walked over to him and tried to pull him out by his arms.

"Hey Sango!" Kagome called up to her friend. "Can you help me get him out?"

"No way!" Sango called down, shaking her head. "I think I like it better when he is down there, stuck. I feel much safer."

Miroku looked up at her with a hurt expression.

"Why my dear Sango," he began "you misjudge me. You see, there was this strange bug that I had never seen before, and I just had to get a closer look so I …"

"So you looked down my kimono?"

"It was in your best interests."

InuYasha snorted.

"Keh, you got what you deserved monk."

"I would say the same for you InuYasha."

InuYasha glowered at him and turned away, trying to get the noodles out of his hair.

Kagome shook her head and went back to getting Miroku out of the dirt.

"Okay, I want you to push up with your legs while I pull on your arms." She said.

Miroku nodded.

"Okay one… two… push!" She yelled and with a grunt, Miroku came out of the ground. Unfortunately, he landed right on top of Kagome. It didn't take long for Kagome to feel that all too familiar squeeze.

"PERVERT!" She yelled, pushing him off and hitting him on the head. Seconds later, Sangos' Hirokutsu fell out of the tree and on to Mirokus' head, leaving him stunned.

"Monk." InuYasha growled out in warning. Kagome was like a sister to him, and he wouldn't let any old person going around and grope her.

Kagome backed away and went to sit by the now noodle less and chocolate free InuYasha.

Miroku sighed and went to sit under the tree Sango was on.

Sango looked down at him and scooted closer to the trunk of the tree.

Kagome shook her head and looked up at InuYasha.

"So, how did the whole noodle and chocolate thing happen?"

InuYasha grunted and looked over at the fox that was asleep by Kagomes' sleeping bag.

"He came up behind me and pushed my face into the bowl of ramen I was holding."

Kagome looked up at him, surprised.

InuYasha looked embarrassed about what he was going to say next.

"I stood up really fast, tripped over a rock, and landed on one of those chocolate bars Shippo stole from your bag."

Kagome stood up and would have frowned at Shippo stealing if the whole situation hadn't been so funny.

"I'm surprised you didn't hit him, not that I'm complaining!" She quickly said.

"Keh, I'll get him next time.

Kagome just shook her head and began to unroll her sleeping bag by the dying fire.

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Sesshomaru flew over his lands towards the sent of his half-brother. Normally, he wouldn't want to be anywhere near him. This time though, he had something he needed, the miko that was always following the half breed around.

It wasn't hard to pick the most worthy miko for his task. The human had proved her worth many times in battle. She would stand up to him, even when there was no possible chance of her even hurting him. In doing so, she had earned a small sliver of respect from the demon lord.

Sesshomaru looked up at the starlit sky briefly. He figured that he would be able to reach the half breeds camp, and obtain the miko at about the time the sun rose.


	4. Meeting

Kagome sat up suddenly. Something was making her nervous. 'What could it be?' she wondered.She looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was just beginning to rise. Shippo had curled up against her side; his tiny hands were grasping her skirt. She saw Sango propped up on the same tree branch with Miroku sitting at the base of the tree. InuYasha was awake and sitting on the other side of the burnt out fire. She didn't see anything unusual. There was absolutely no reason to be worried. Kagome uncurled Shippo's hands from her skirt and walked over to him.

"InuYasha." Kagome said. "I feel something coming." InuYasha nodded.

The two of them continued to gaze at the rising sun until InuYasha suddenly stiffened and growled. Kagome looked at him, confused.

"Sesshomaru." He spat out.

Kagome understood and hurried to wake the other members of the group. She hoped that she could get them up quickly so they could leave as soon as possible. She walked over to Sango and Miroku first. She began to shake Miroku by the shoulder.

"Urgg... What's wrong Lady Kagome?" He asked

"Sesshomaru's coming; can you help me wake up Sango?"

Miroku nodded and soon everyone in the camp was awake, packed, and ready to go. All except for InuYasha.

He stood in the same spot Kagome had left him in, waiting for Sesshomaru to come.

"InuYasha," Kagome began "we shouldn't fight with Sesshomaru unless it's necessary. If we stay it'll be completely pointless."

"Lady Kagome's right." Miroku agreed "We should save our energy so we can be ready to fight Naraku."

InuYasha saw the point in this but ignored them. He didn't want to run away from his half brother like a coward. What half demon in his right mind would do that?

The group, realizing that InuYasha wasn't going to move, and that 'sitting' him wouldn't help at all, went over and sat by the tree Sango had slept in last night. They wanted to keep out of the way. Or, at least, as much as possible.

They didn't have to wait long. About five minutes later Sesshomaru arrived on his cloud, making a soundless landing about twenty feet away from InuYasha.

"What do you want Sesshomaru?" InuYasha growled over to his half brother.

Sesshomaru ignored him and began to walk over to the group sitting by the tree. InuYasha jumped in front of his brother and the four group members stood up.  
"This doesn't concern you." Sesshomaru stated, walking around InuYasha.

InuYasha stared at him mutely. He had been certain that Sesshomaru had come for the Tetsusaiga. InuYasha watched Sesshomaru slowly walk over to the others. The only reason he wasn't attacking Sesshomaru was to avoid hitting the others in the group, so InuYasha just followed him slowly. He never knew what Sesshomaru would do, so he kept his guard up. Sesshomaru stopped in front of Kagome.

"Miko," he began "you will come with me."

Kagome was shocked and a bit miffed. She never thought that the Lord of the Western Lands would ask, err, demand, her to do something. She managed to compose herself just enough to ask "why?" After all, she should get a reason.

Sesshomaru just stood there for a second, contemplating whether or not he should tell her why he needed her, and finally decided that is was best to tell her. Knowing his pathetic half brother, she would be just as stubborn until she got her answer.

"I need your assistance to acquire a few items."  
"What are they?" Kagome asked, feeling self-assured.

Sesshomaru almost growled in annoyance. She wasn't supposed to ask this many questions. Just like InuYasha.

"They are four bells that can cause a great amount of destruction."

The group looked suspiciously at him.

Sesshomaru almost sighed.

"When was the last time you saw that pathetic half breed, Naraku?" He asked.

The group thought back. It must have been a couple of months since they last saw Naraku. They didn't think much of it since they probably weren't the only ones he terrorized. If he wasn't doing that, he was probably looking for jewel shards. They were beginning to worry now.

"A couple of months ago." Kagome answered.

"Naraku has been terrorizing villages in order to find these bells. With them, and the Shikon jewel, he shall easily be able to take over the world."

Kagome felt a horrible fear creep up on her when she imagined what a world would be like, ruled by Naraku. Not that she hadn't been thinking about it. She was glad that Shippo was asleep in her pack.

"Why do you need me?" Kagome asked, not liking the way her voice was quivering.  
"A Miko will be able to locate the area where a bell is."

"There is no way that she is going with you, Sesshomaru!" InuYasha yelled, not wanting to be ignored any longer. "We need her to help us look for Shikon shards!"

Sesshomaru sighed and reached into a hidden pocket and brought out a black velvet cloth. He slowly unwound it to reveal seven tainted shikon shards.

"Where did you get those?" InuYasha asked staring suspiciously at the shards.

"Some of the demons on my land were carrying them around." Sesshomaru said plainly. He handed three of them to Kagome and they were instantly purified. "I will give you the other four once we finish."

"I believe you should go with him Lady Kagome." Miroku said after long pause.

"You're taking his side, monk?" InuYasha challenged.

"I'm not taking anyone's side. I believe that it would be better if we did split up. Naraku can only look for one thing at a time. If some of us are looking for the Shikon No Tama, and Lady Kagome and Sesshomaru look for these bells, we have a greater chance of finding them before he does. With the seven shards that Sesshomaru has, there shouldn't be that many more to find."

Everyone looked at Miroku for a second and Sesshomaru's little respect for the monk raised a few notches.

InuYasha was torn between what to do. He knew that what Miroku said was true, but he was extremely reluctant to leave Kagome in Sesshomaru's' care. He sighed before looking over at Kagome.

"Do you want to do this?" He asked her.

"Not really," Kagome said "but I know that I should. I don't want Naraku to become anymore powerful then he already is, so if these bells could stop him from growing stronger, then I'll help your brother."  
InuYasha grumbled. "Half brother."

Sesshomaru nodded and put the remaining shards back in his pocket.

"Grab your bag Miko, were leaving."

Kagome felt a small amount of anger at him calling her that. 'If I'm going to work with him,' she thought 'he's going to have to stop calling me that. It's scary how much InuYasha was like him' Kagome went and got her pack anyway.

"I'll see you guys later." Kagome said, hugging the remaining members.

She then walked over to where Sesshomaru was standing.

Sesshomaru summoned his cloud, which earned a surprised squeak from Kagome and took off.

As the remaining group members watched them go, that noticed that something was wrong.

After looking around Sango asked "Where's Shippo?"

Miroku and InuYasha's eyes widened and they looked around franticly. They then remembered where Shippo had been.

"Oh no."


	5. Stop at the Castle

I was having some problems getting this chapter up. Sorry for all of those who I made wait. From now on, I'll tell you all if something happens on my profile page.

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Kagome stood shaking with cold on the back of Sesshomaru's cloud. She had never been this high and not having anything stable-looking under her feet didn't help at all. To take her mind off the ground far below her, she looked up at Sesshomaru. He was in the same position he had been the whole time.

'Has he even twitched? Or shivered?' She wondered. She looked at his face. He was looking straight ahead, his face as cold as the current temperature, like he didn't care that he had a human female sitting right behind him. Kagome sighed and looked up at the sky.

'I wonder how long this will take. It probably won't be a very quick search since there are only four bells. Sesshomaru needed a miko to find them though, so maybe they give mikos the same feeling that the Shikon does. Wait. That means that I've gone from being a shard detector to a bell detector in just a day! Oh joy. Again, Inuyasha and his brother are more alike than they even dream.'

Kagome was brought out of her thoughts when she sneezed and shivered. 'It's freezing! But at least I have a good view of the stars.'

Meanwhile, a demon lord was puzzling over the miko sitting behind him. She was a strange creature. She hadn't complained once about the cold that she was probably feeling. His little esteem for her went up a notch.

Sesshomaru scanned the area ahead of him. 'I'll stop at the castle to drop off her kit and talk to Zerin. I want to see if he has found out anything else on these bells.'

He knew that Zerin would have at least looked for information concerning the bells. If he hadn't found anything on the bells, well, he'd have another helper. Sesshomaru wondered if the miko even knew that the fox kit was in her bag. He heard the miko sneeze quietly. It was a good thing that they were almost there. He didn't want the miko to get sick. It would take too long for him.

'Wow.' Was all Kagome could think as they landed at Sesshomaru's castle. It had a huge lawn covered in all different kinds of vegetation and flowers. There were two oak doors that were blocking her view of the inside of the giant white castle. Kagome watched in awe as the doors slowly opened to reveal… Jaken. Something seemed different about him, though.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" he called, running up to him. Sesshomaru looked down at him.

"What are you wearing, Jaken?" He asked

Kagome then noticed what was wrong with the little toad. He was wearing a green fluffy dress that probably belonged to a little girl. The sleeves poofed out at the ends and there were large orange bows running along the bottom of the dress. She didn't know whether to laugh or throw up

"My lord!" Jaken began "It was the small human child and that dirty raccoon that did this to your poor loyal servant! I am grateful that you returned to your loyal servant after only a day with…" Jaken paused when he saw Kagome. He seemed to stand there, thinking, for a while before he finally recognized Kagome. He let out an indignant squawk.

"InuYasha's wench! What is she doing here, my lord?" He asked.

Kagome glared at him. Jaken returned it.

"She will be staying with me for a short period of time; you will treat her with respect while she is here." He answered, walking inside. "Come miko."

Kagome glared at his back. 'He talks about showing respect, and he doesn't even use my name! Does he even know my name! Argh!'

She considered staying outside, just to spite him, but her curiosity got the better of her and she followed him inside.

She had walked into a big entry room, with a winding staircase that led to one of the upper floors. At the top of the staircase was a little girl in a flowered kimono smiling down at them. Her smile showed Kagome a gap in her teeth. 'Cute!' Kagome thought when she saw the girl.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" The little girl yelled as she came running down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she threw herself onto Sesshomaru's leg. "Rin missed you Lord Sesshomaru! Jaken said that you were leaving Rin, but Rin did not believe him!"

Sesshomaru reached down and patted Rin on the head. "Where is Zerin?" He asked her.

Rin giggled. "Rin was playing a game with Zerin when he got lost. Rin tried to find Zerin but Rin found Lord Sesshomaru first!" Rin looked around Sesshomaru's leg at Kagome. She smiled up at her. "Rin's name is Rin!" Rin said holding out her hand. Kagome reached down and took it.

"My name is Kagome. It's very nice to meet you Rin." Kagome said, smiling down at her.

"Will you play with Rin?"

"I will sometime."

"There you are!" said a voice from upstairs.

Kagome looked up and saw a raccoon demon standing at the top of the stairs playfully glaring down at Rin.

"I was wondering where you went off to." He looked down at Jaken, and seemed to be holding back a snigger. "Well, at least you haven't been bored!" He said walking down the stairs. "It's nice to see you back so soon. Though, I'm guessing you haven't found anything yet."

"This is Kagome." Sesshomaru said, stepping aside so Zerin could see her "She will be assisting me search for the bells."

"My name is Zerin," Zerin said, bowing to Kagome "and I am the temporary baby sitter of Rin and Jaken."

Jaken let out another squawk at this, but otherwise chose to remain silent.

"Have you found out anything else about the bells?" Sesshomaru asked Zerin.

"I have actually." He said smiling

Sesshomaru stood there waiting

"Right, well it turns out the rumor that all the bells were here was a lie. It turns out that all the bells had shot over the ocean and each one had landed in a different place."

Sesshomaru inwardly cursed his luck. This was going to take longer then he thought.

Kagome could vaguely here Rin chasing Jaken to some unknown part of the castle. 'None of the bells are in Japan? This is going to take awhile.'

"We will leave shortly." Sesshomaru said. "Get your things and come."

Kagome grumbled, but complied. She grabbed her bag and walked over to Sesshomaru. 'Hmmm,' she thought 'This stop did some good. My bag seems lighter now.'

Kagome wasn't as surprised when she felt the cloud materialize under her feet this time, but she was still getting used to the feeling. As they rose up she could hear Zerin shouting

"Goodbye. Don't get lost or eaten!"

Zerin saw Kagome look down at him like he was crazy and sighed

"That poor girl really doesn't know what she got herself into, does she?" He asked himself. He shook his head and walked off to find Rin. He was eager to see what she had done to Jaken this time.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It's me again. I was wondering if anyone knew what Sesshomaru's name means. I heard it meant something, but I couldn't find out what. I would be very grateful if someone told me.


	6. Troublesome Three

Shippo woke up a little disoriented. He wasn't able to get enough sleep because he couldn't seem to get comfortable. He yawned and crawled out of Kagome's backpack. Shippo froze when he saw his surroundings. He seemed to be in a huge mansion of sorts. Shippo slowly poked his head over the backpack and looked around. After glancing around for a bit, he noticed a few figures in the corner of the large room. He saw three people talking about something, probably something very important from the looks on their faces. He could tell that one of them was a raccoon demon and Kagome was there too. She appeared to be standing behind. Sesshomaru?

'Why would Kagome be talking to Sesshomaru? Why is he here?' He wondered. 'Where is here, anyways?'

Shippo looked around some more and saw a door across from where the adults were talking.

'I should look and see where that door goes. We might need to get out of here fast!'  
Shippo glanced back at Kagome one more time.

'Kagome, I'll be right back.'

Shippo crouched low and then sprinted into the doorway. There were two pathways. One went left, the other went right. He looked both ways before dashing off to the left. The hallway was very long, and there wasn't very much difference on either side of the hall. The floor was a light brown and the walls and ceiling were white. There were a lot of dark brown doors, eight feet apart each, which went down each side of the hall as far as Shippo could see. In between each door was a leafy green plant. Talk about original decorating.

Shippo walked down the hall for a while before stopping at a door. This door looked the same as all the other doors, except that this door had one fist sized white spot near the top of it. Shippo reached up to the doorknob and hesitated.

'It would be rude to enter a room without asking first. That's what Kagome says.'  
He pushed away the fact that he was already intruding in someone's house before lightly knocking on the door. He didn't get an answer so he entered to room.

He was in a kitchen. It was huge like the rest of the house and very clean. He didn't see any pots, pans, knives, or any other of those kitchen things. He suddenly heard two pots lightly tap together behind him. He spun around, trying to find the noise. He heard it again. It was coming from one of the cabinets. Shippo cautiously made his way over to it. He was about to open it when it burst open on its own! Shippo screamed and jumped back. He felt a small weight slam into him and cover his mouth. Shippo looked up and saw a little girl holding one of her hands over his mouth and the other was pushed to her lips in a signal to be quiet. She looked down at him and said,

"You got to be quiet otherwise Jaken will find Rin!"

The little girl seemed to be waiting for an answer so Shippo nodded. The girl smiled and removed her hand from his mouth. She got to her feet and helped Shippo up.

"Rin's name Is Rin." She said.

"I'm Shippo." Shippo answered. "Who were you hiding from?"

"Oh no! Rin forgot! Rin was hiding from Jaken because Jaken said mean things to Rin!"

"Who's Jaken?" Shippo asked. 'That name sounds familiar.'

"Jaken is supposed to watch Rin while Lord Sesshomaru is gone. Rin likes to take his staff and watch him make funny faces." She giggled.

Shippo's eyes widened. He remembered who Jaken was now! He was that loud, green thing that always followed Sesshomaru around. Jaken was never far away from Sesshomaru.

"Hey Rin, where are we?" He asked, remembering his first question.

"Were in the kitchen!"

"No, whose home are we in?"

"Oh, were in Lord Sesshomaru's house."

'His house! More like his castle. What would Kagome be doing here?' Shippo thought.  
He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a loud screech echo through the kitchen.

"Rin!" The voice yelled.

Shippo looked over at Rin and saw her looking towards the door nervously. 'Hey, that's Jaken's voice!'

"You get out here you horrible child! Lord Sesshomaru will have my head if I loose you. Rin, Rin!" Jaken screeched from somewhere out in the halls.

"Come on Shippo!" Rin said pulling on his hand. "We have to go before Jaken finds us. He won't be happy to find you here."

Shippo let Rin lead him through a door in the back of the kitchen. They were now in a very large dining room. There was a long oak table with a lot of chairs around it. Shippo didn't get a very good look at the room because Rin pulled him into another hallway that was identical to the first.  
'How does she know where she's going?' He thought.

They ran in silence for a little while before Rin stopped in the middle of a doorway, panting.  
She turned to Shippo and said, "Rin doesn't think that Jaken will be able to catch us. He runs really slowly. Jaken wouldn't be happy if he found you with Rin." She paused for a second to regain her breath then continued, "Jaken would yell at us and we would have to run all over again. Why are you in Lord Sesshomaru's home?"

Shippo suddenly remembered what he had set out to do. 'I need to go back to the first room and see if Kagome is still there. I don't think I have enough time to find an exit. Kagome could need my help right now!'

"Rin, do you know how to get to that one room that Sesshomaru was talking in?" He asked her.

"You mean the one with Zerin and nice Lady Kagome?"

Shippo nodded his head. 'Zerin must be that raccoon demon.' He thought briefly.

"Rin can take you there!" She said nodding and looking around. She seemed to find what she was looking for and began to pull him through another series of doors and hallways. Shippo soon found himself in the room he was first in. There was one problem though. Kagome wasn't in the room any more.

'Sesshomaru and Kagome are gone!' He thought looking around frantically. He noticed the raccoon demon, Zerin, about to walk up a set of spiraling stairs.

"Wait!" Shippo shouted, running up to Zerin.

Zerin looked down at Shippo with surprise. 'I don't remember there being any fox kits in the castle.' He thought. He shrugged it off and bent down to the kits level.

"Are you looking for something kit?" Zerin asked.

Shippo looked up at him sniffling. "Yes, I'm looking for Kagome. Do you know where she is?"

"Kagome just went off with Sesshomaru to look for something very important. I don't know when they'll be back."

"Waaaaaa!" Shippo wailed "I knew I shouldn't have taken so long! Now Kagome's gone and could be in danger and I missed her!"

Zerin picked up the kit unsteadily and attempted to sooth him. Zerin looked at the sobbing kit in his arms and Rin who had come over to him and was holding his pant leg and got an idea.

"It wasn't fair that we all got left behind was it?" He asked.

The kit and Rin both shook their heads.

"I'm sure they will soon both be lost and afraid with out us."

Rin nodded and the kit sniffled some more.

"Now kit,"

"My name's Shippo." Shippo said.

Zerin smiled down at Shippo. "Right. Now Shippo don't you think that Kagome and Sesshomaru would feel a lot better if we were there to guard them?"

The two children smiled and nodded.

"It's settled than. We'll go out, find Kagome and Sesshomaru, and keep them safe. What do you think about that?"

"What about Jaken?" Rin asked. "Rin knows he'll be mad at Rin if he finds out."

"We'll be back before he notices. So who wants to come?"

Shippo and Rin both raised their hands, each grinning eagerly.

"Let's go!" Shippo exclaimed.

Zerin put Shippo down and led the two out the door.

"How are we going to catch them? Sesshomaru can fly." Shippo asked.

"Hmmmmm," Zerin said thinking "We'll just have to find a way."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Jaken wandered the halls looking for Rin.  
"Where could that little monster have run off to?"  
He peered into a random doorway.

"Rin, Rin! Come out you little beast! Lord Sesshomaru will be very angry if he finds you missing!"  
Jaken listened to his call echo through the hall way and ground his teeth in frustration at the devilish little mortal child.

"I'll find you Rin! You can't be far!"


	7. Black and White

Kagome and Sesshomaru had been flying over an ocean for at least an hour. It was easily the longest hour in Kagomes' life. The only reason that she had been quiet for this long was she was playing a game with herself. The goal of the game was to be silent longer then Sesshomaru.

'I will win, I will win, I will win' Kagome kept repeating to herself. 'I will wi--. This isn't helping at all.' She thought 'If anything, it's making me want to talk more. Let's see. What else could I think about? The ocean! Yes, the ocean. It's very pretty, and blue. It just never seems to stop. It goes on and on, ohhhh! Was that a fish? I think…… no.' Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru. He hadn't moved since the last time she looked at him. 'It can't be much longer to where ever we're going. Where are we going? NO! I must not ask him! Must…. Not….'

"Hey Sesshomaru?" Kagome said, inwardly crying over losing her game.

Sesshomaru kept looking ahead.

"Where are we going?"

Sesshomaru spared her a glance.

"To where the bells are." He answered simply.

"And where is that?"

"You are the one who can sense the bells. So it is your job to lead us to them."

Kagome stared at him open mouthed.

"You never asked me which way to go." She said with growing anger.

"I'm sure that if you sensed something, you would have shouted it to me by now."

'That's it!' Kagome seethed.

"Well if you had just asked me which way to go, I would have told you that I haven't felt anything except cold for the past hour! I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel when we're near a bell!" She shouted. "I would have told you politely that we were near a bell and I wouldn't have shouted it."

"It is not my problem that you are cold and as for the bells, you would know what they were when you sensed them."

"Yes it is your problem that I'm cold. You're the one that got us lost."

Sesshomaru almost growled at her. "Do you doubt this ones navigation skills human?"

Kagome took a deep breath to calm herself down. Enough not to scream at him anyway. "Of course I don't doubt your navigation skills. You never had any to begin with."

"Don't push your luck human. I could easily drop you into the ocean right now."

Kagome suppressed a small shiver of fear, or cold, before replying. "Well if you dropped me, you'd have a much harder time finding the bells. If I remember correctly, you need a miko to find these bells, and it's highly unlikely that you'll find one who would come with out kicking and screaming."

Sesshomaru paused to consider this. He knew that no other miko would come as easily as this one did and that they would kick and scream until they passed out. He didn't know how long he would be able to last with a miko like that without killing her. He wouldn't let this human know that though. 'I have never lost a fight to a human, mentally or physically, and I won't start now.'

He didn't need to look at the girl to know that she was radiating smugness that his pause caused. "Don't strain yourself. I need you to be at your full awareness in order to find the bells."

"Huh?"

"If you keep using big words like that, your head would explode from the effort it takes you to think of them, and I don't want to get blood on my clothing." Sesshomaru knew how childish that sounded, but he didn't care.

"Are you saying that I'm stupid?" Kagome asked, the anger coming back into her voice.

Sesshomaru looked down at her once again. "Yes."

Kagome gaped and tried to think of a come back. When she couldn't, she huffed and looked back out towards the ocean. 'That's Sesshomaru 2, Kagome 0.'

Sesshomaru could have grinned when he saw that she wasn't going to make a come back. As much as he hated to admit it, he had enjoyed his argument with her. He hadn't met anyone who was willing to argue with him. Jaken would complain once in a while, but all Sesshomaru had to do was look at him and Jaken would bow and apologize. Rin was still too young to get into an argument with him and InuYasha…. Well the arguments with him weren't even good enough to be considered an argument. Sesshomaru knew that there would be more of these in the near future, and he was strangely looking forward to them. For now though, he would enjoy the silence. He probably wouldn't get much of it later on.

Sesshomaru was enjoying the silence when he felt his cloud vibrate. He looked back at the girl to find her shivering. He wasn't going to let this girl's intolerance to the cold ruin his silence. Sesshomaru uncoiled his tail from his shoulder and wrapped it around the girl. He saw her look up at him in surprise.

"We went over this before. I will not have you go and get yourself sick when you have a job to do."

Kagome felt to warm and comfortable to complain so she just nodded her head in a sleepy acceptance. Kagome yawned and looked out at the ocean one more time before asking "Where are we going anyways?"

"To the nearest piece of land we can find. We need supplies."

Kagome vaguely noticed that they hadn't brought any supplies and remembered that she had left her backpack at the castle before falling into a light sleep.

Kagome woke up to the feeling of something wet on her face. She reached up to brush the moisture off when she realized that she couldn't move her arms. She sat up quickly and looked around, trying to see where she was. She blushed when she realized that she was curled up In Sesshomarus tail. Kagome attempted to untangle herself when she heard Sesshomarus voice.

"Stop." He commanded. He must have felt that she was going to retort so he said "The temperatures here are many degrees below freezing. If you unwound yourself, you would freeze to death."

Kagome realized the truth in his words, so she settled to look at their current position. They weren't as high up as they used to be. They were actually pretty close to the water, which would explain why her face had gotten wet. She twisted around as far as she could and looked around Sesshomaru. What she saw nearly took her breath away.

They were quickly approaching a land that was covered in white snow. The snow went out as far as she could see and as they passed over it Kagome could see no signs of life marring its surface. Everything was in black and white, almost like someone had sucked all the color right off the face of the planet. Even the animals that lived here were in black and white. There were snow white bears that easily padded over the snows surface, and a little further on, there were some kind of black and white ducks. Only that these ducks had no feathers! Kagome had to continually look up at Sesshomaru to make sure that she hadn't gone color blind.

Sesshomaru and Kagome flew on through this peaceful landscape for a while before Kagome saw something odd.

"Sesshomaru, look!" She shouted at him, not caring that he probably had already seen the strange lumps of snow in the distance. These snow lumps were all about the same size and were arranged much like the houses in a town would be.

"That is the village." He replied.

Kagome tried to remember if she had learned about anything like this in school. She couldn't remember since for the last week that she had been in school they had talked about feudal Japan, so she had just zoned out. Kagome was sure that there was nothing like this in Japan.

Kagome felt them descend further so that they were finally hovering over the ground. Sesshomaru gracefully stepped off the cloud causing it to disappear. Kagome squealed in surprise and closed her eyes when she felt it disappear from under her. She expected to land on the ground when she realized that Sesshomarus tail was suspending her in the air.

She held in a laugh when she realized what the two of them must look like. An intimidating demon lord being followed by a fluffy, floating, miko.

As the two of them got closer, Kagome began to hear the normal activity of a town. So when they actually got to it, she wasn't as surprised as she would have been. There were twenty or thirty demons out there doing everyday things like shopping and talking happily. Nobody spared a passing glance at the foreign demon lord and miko.

"Where are we?" Kagome asked.

When she got no answer, she began to pull on as much of Sesshomarus tail that she could reach and asked again.

"I don't know the name of this village." He replied "It is obviously used as a rest stop for travelers since the inhabitants act as if they see this kind of thing every day."

Kagome nodded in acceptance as she took a closer look at the lumps of snow. They didn't look very much like lumps any more. They were all made in the same fashion, a half circle sitting on top of the snow with a oval hole that was used as a entry way.

"Well, we should look for a shop to buy supplies at." Kagome said to herself.

Kagome looked around at all the identical houses.

"Umm, do you know where we could buy supplies?" She asked a female demon that was passing by.

The demon stared blankly at them before pointing to one of the houses and saying "Rolland." The demon smiled and then walked away.

"I guess 'Rolland' means 'there' in this language." Kagome said.

Sesshomaru gave a short nod before walking to the house the woman had pointed to.

Kagome curiously looked at the villagers as they were walking to the house. They all had silvery white hair and deep blue eyes. 'I remember that from somewhere,' she thought 'Oh yes, they must be the same kind of demon as that white bear I saw earlier!'

She looked up just in time to see Sesshomaru walk into the house. She was blasted with warmth that she hadn't been able to fell outside and was suddenly wishing that Sesshomaru would put her down. The inside wasn't what she expected a shop to look like, but then again, nothing made sense to her here. There were fur chairs in the front of the room surrounding a table made from a material that she had never seen before. There was also a hole in the back of the front room that probably lead to a back room.

Sesshomaru stood there for a second before unwinding his tail, letting Kagome fall to the ground with a thump.

"Hey! What was that for?" She said, getting up quickly. The inside of the house may be warm, but the floor was still made of snow.

"You no longer needed the warmth my tail provided."

"Well you didn't have to just drop me."

They were interrupted from getting any further when they saw someone immerge from the back room.

He was tall, only an inch or two shorter then Sesshomaru and had the same silver hair and blue eyes that all the people of this town seemed to have. His eyes were the only thing that had color though. He wore loose black pants with a loose white shirt. His hair was about as long as Kagomes, but it was fine like Sesshomarus. The thing that surprised Kagome the most was that he didn't wear shoes of any kind.

'Don't his feet get cold?' She wondered.

The man looked at them and said "Rejiah goad hpnan."

"Excuse me?" Kagome said "I can't understand you."

"Ahhh, this is the language you speak." He said grinning at them.

"You speak our language?"

"Yes, I asked you what language you spoke in my native tongue to see what language you would reply in."

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow.

The man chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "You see, I'm one of the village translators. If a foreigner, like yourselves, asks then a question they don't understand, they will send you to me or another translator."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Oh," Kagome exclaimed remembering something "we met a woman on the way here. She pointed to this house and said 'Rolland.' What does that mean?"

The man chuckled. "Excuse my rudeness. My name Is Rolland."

"I'm Kagome and that" she said pointing over at Sesshomaru "Is Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru slightly narrowed his eyes at being called a 'that.'

"Well it's my pleasure to meet you both. May I ask what you are doing here?" Rolland asked looking skeptically over at Sesshomaru.

"Were here for supplies." Sesshomaru said icily.

"Well where are you going?" Rolland said, trying to be polite.

"We don't know." Kagome answered, feeling the tension in the room.

"Do you know what kind of weather you'll be facing or what kind of people live where you might be going?"

Kagome looked down ashamed. "No."

Rolland grabbed her chin and made her look up at him. "I'll just give you the basics then, okay."

Kagome pulled away, blushing. "Yes. Thank you."

Kagome's eyes widened when she felt Sesshomarus tail wrap around her once again, but this time covering her all the way up with only a little hole to breath through.

"Well be expecting the supplies within the hour." Sesshomaru said before leaving the house.

Kagome barely felt the blast of cold when they stepped outside. She attempted to wiggle her head out, and succeeded, but just barely. She was still covered up to her chin by Sesshomarus tail.

"What was that for?" She said angrily at Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru didn't answer her and continued walking away from Rolland's house.

"It is rude to walk out of someone's house like that. For all we know—"

Sesshomaru stopped listening to her and began to think about why he did that. 'I acted like a jealous pup.'

"--I think that he was a really nice guy! What did he--"

'I've never acted like that before. It was probably because I'm starting to get a headache.'

"--Can't judge people like that. Is it--"

'His voice was starting to annoy me. The female would have talked to him with her consistent chatter and we would never have been able to leave.'

"—What! I think he should join us. He would know the languages of--"

'So it was a good thing we left like that. That pup needs to be put in his place. No matter what the female says about him joining--'

"What do you mean joining us?" Sesshomaru growled out, interrupting Kagome's rant.

"Well if you were listening to me, you would know. Rolland could be a big help. He understands the languages that we don't."

"There are other translators here."

"But we know Rolland, so that makes him the best choice."

"We are not bringing along some pup that will get home sick the minute we leave."

Three hours later

"We're back Rolland!" Kagome said when they returned to Rolland's house.

"You were gone longer then expected, but I have your stuff ready to go." He held one light blue bag out to Kagome.

"Hey Rolland," Kagome began.

Rolland looked at her strangely. "Yes Kagome?"

"Would you like to come with Sesshomaru and me?"

Rolland looked over at Sesshomaru.

"I don't think he would like that very much."

"Oh, don't worry about him. We were two hours late because we were discussing if you could come or not."

"Two hours huh?" Rolland paused considering his options. "Sure I'll join you."

"You only packed enough for two." Sesshomaru cut in.

"Don't worry. When you were two hours late, I knew that you had either been killed, or you were going to let me come with you. So I packed enough for three." Rolland answered, grinning evilly at Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru wrapped Kagome back up in his tail and left the pack to Rolland before heading outside. Rolland grumbled while picking up the pack and trotting outside. He was greeted with the stoic face of Sesshomaru and the grinning face of Kagome waiting for him about fifty feet away.

"Come on or we'll leave you behind!" Kagome called out to him.

Rolland knew that Sesshomaru would not hesitate to do just so, so he ran over to the two of them. He stopped a few feet away from Sesshomaru and was mildly surprised when he felt something like a cloud form under his feet.

Kagome must have seen his expression because she grinned at him and said "Don't worry. I was surprised too at first, but it really is stable."

Rolland nodded his head and stared at his slowly retreating village as the duo turned trio set off for an unknown place.


	8. Sesshomaru

"Okay, let's try this one more time." Kagome said, pointing to Sesshomaru.

"Right." Rolland nodded.

"His name is Sesshomaru."

"Sheshomanru" Rolland repeated.

"No. Ses-sho-ma-ru."

"That's what I said, She-sho-man-ru."

Sesshomaru stared straight ahead, trying to ignore the two sitting behind  
him. For the last half hour, Kagome had been attempting to teach Rolland how  
to pronounce their names. He had gotten fairly close to pronouncing Kagome's  
name, settling on Kagami, but it almost seemed that he was trying to mess  
Sesshomaru's name up.

"Repeat after me." Kagome told Rolland.

Rolland nodded.

"Sess."

"She."

"No. Sess."

"She!" Rolland replied quickly.

Kagome put a finger on her lips in thought.

"Hmmmmm. I like it!" Kagome thought out loud.

"What do you like?" Rolland asked, confused.

"Well, if you say 'Sess' and 'She' really quickly, you get Sesshy!" She  
said, proud of herself.

"So?" Rolland asked, still confused.

"Miko." Sesshomaru said without looking back at her "You will under no  
circumstances call me by that name."

"Come on! Sesshomaru is such a long name and Rolland can't pronounce it!"  
Kagome said.

"Woman, I am not as stupid as that idiot sitting next to you."

"Well at least that idiot knows how to pronounce my name!" Kagome yelled up  
at him.

"That idiot is sitting right here." Rolland said; getting annoyed that they  
were talking about him like he wasn't there.

"Sorry." Kagome said to Rolland. "Some people have no manners at all." She  
said, looking at Sesshomaru.

"Man Sesshy, you need to be nicer to others." Rolland said smirking at him.

Sesshomaru turned to Rolland with his eyes narrowed. "Unlike the Miko, you   
are expendable and I will not hesitate to kill you."

Rolland glared back at him. "You just try."

"Guys!" Kagome exclaimed, standing up. "We shouldn't be-"Kagome stopped  
suddenly and looked to the right.

Rolland looked away from Sesshomaru and over to Kagome. "What is it?"

"I don't know for sure." Kagome told him "It's almost like the pull I feel  
from the jewel shards, but this is different somehow. I can't quite explain  
it."

"That's probably one of the bells." Sesshomaru stated and directed his cloud  
in the direction Kagome was pointing.

Kagome smiled "We've finally found one!"

"It's only been two days." Rolland pointed out.

Kagome shrugged and sat down. She gasped.

"What now woman?" Sesshomaru asked her.

She glared up at him and said "Not that you care, but I can't sense the bell  
anymore."

Sesshomaru paused for a second before saying "Stand up."

Kagome looked up at him questioningly, staying where she was.

Sesshomaru sighed and, reaching down, grabbed Kagome, making her stand.

"Wh-What are you doing?" She asked embarrassed.

"Tell me what you feel." He told her.

'Other then embarrassed and confused?' Kagome felt like saying. She paused  
for a moment, concentrating, and then smiled. "I can feel the bell again!"

"So you can only sense them when you're standing up." Rolland said.

The smile practically flew off Kagome's face and she glared at the air in  
front of her. "I'm going to have to stand the whole time aren't I?" She said  
to herself. Kagome shook her head and smiled again. "Well, standing is  
better for me then sitting anyways! So this is a good thing!"

Sesshomaru stared at her with amusement flashing briefly in his eyes before  
removing the hand that had been holding Kagome up, making her fall back onto  
the cloud with a thump.

Kagome stood back up "What did you do that for?" She asked Sesshomaru.

"I just assumed that you could stand on your own."

Rolland looked up at the two before lying down on the cloud. "Well standing  
may be fun for the two of you, but I like to lie down."

After another three hours, or something close to that, of flying Kagome  
thought it was time to ask the others a very important question.

"Am I the only one who's noticed how unbearably warm it's gotten?" She asked  
wiping sweat from her forehead.

Rolland poked his head around a pile of discarded furs. "Now that you  
mention it, it is getting a little hotter."

"Just a little." She agreed.

Kagome looked over at Sesshomaru. "Can you not feel how hot it is?" She  
asked.

Sesshomaru didn't answer.

"Fine then." She panted.

"There's land ahead." Sesshomaru stated.

"Where?" Kagome asked looking around.

Rolland sat up and began looking. "Right there." He said pointing into the  
distance.

Kagome turned to Rolland and at the sight of his bare chest, turned quickly   
around blushing.

Sesshomaru looked at her and pointed towards the approaching landmass.

"Oh! I see it now." She said looking towards what seemed like an endless  
beach. As they got closer, Kagome could see small trees and bushes.

Sesshomaru slowly lowered the cloud into the water near the shore and let it   
disappear.

"Why did you drop us off in the water?" Rolland asked, watching as his fur  
lined pants slowly absorbed water.

Sesshomaru slowly began to take off his armor and the top part of his kimono  
and slung them over his shoulder, leaving only his pants and his shoes as he  
walked out of the water. "It's going to get hotter as we go in further, so  
you should remove any clothes that are not necessary."

Kagome blushed and nodded as she looked down at her school uniform. 'There  
isn't anything I can remove and still be decent' she thought. She looked   
around and saw the bag of supplies. She went over to it and removed three  
hair ties and handed them to Sesshomaru and Rolland, who took them without  
question.

When she looked over at Rolland and saw that he was looking at his hair tie   
questioningly she said "Our hair is too long to be left down in this heat."  
She saw him staring at her blankly so she walked over and pulled his hair  
into a high ponytail before doing hers. Rolland nodded his thanks and picked  
up the supplies bag.

"Come." Sesshomaru said, walking over to them.

"Okay." Kagome answered. "You ready Rolland?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then!" Kagome said, clapping her hands together. "Let's go find  
that bell!" Kagome then began to walk in the direction that she thought the  
bell was in.

"Hey Sesshomaru," Rolland said glancing over at him "How about a race?"

"Why would I race you?"

"Okay, if you want to be a coward, that's fine with me!" Rolland said  
running off in the direction Kagome was in, preparing to pick her up.

'No one calls this Sesshomaru a coward.' He thought with a frown. Sesshomaru   
quickly grabbed his discarded clothes with his tail and raced after Rolland,  
picking up Kagome as he passed him.

Kagome froze in a shocked silence before she realized who she was with and   
how fast she was going. There was a moment of silence before Kagome uttered  
an ear piercing scream that could be heard for miles and miles


	9. The Manerica

"Left! Turn left!" Kagome shouted frantically, clinging as tightly as she could to Sesshomaru, fearing that if she let go, she would fall.

Sesshomaru quickly turned left sending sand flying behind him onto the face of Rolland. Sesshomaru smirked, hearing Rolland cough up the sand that he had swallowed, slowing his pace giving Sesshomaru a larger lead.

Sesshomaru felt Kagome give a small twitch before she yelled "Stop!"

He abruptly stopped making Rolland, who was still blinded by sand, crash into his back. Sesshomaru set Kagome down before inspecting the land where they had stopped.

It appeared they had stopped on a giant sand dune overlooking the vast expanses of desert that lay before them. There were no signs of civilization or of any living beings in the aria, and as far as Sesshomaru could tell, there hadn't been any for quite some time.

Sesshomaru looked down at Kagome and saw that she was trying in vain to brush off all the sand that had clung to her clothes and noticed that she winced every time she bent her slightly sun burnt arms. His attention moved off the miko when he heard Rolland spit out the last of the sand that was in his mouth and saw him wipe off his tongue with the palm of his hand.

Rolland glanced at the expanse of desert and apparently came to the same decision as Sesshomaru. "Why did we stop here?"

Kagome looked up from brushing off her skirt. "I felt the presence of a bell just a second ago," She looked around "But it's not here anymore."

"A demon most likely has it." Sesshomaru said.

"But I don't smell anyone else here." Rolland said, looking around once more. "It looks like were the first to ever come here." Sesshomaru sighed. 'Why must the one's I bring on this quest be so idiotic?'

"Sand works like water." Sesshomaru explained "With every gust of wind, the grains of sand that were holding a scent were blown in different directions. Likewise, the tracks that we made coming here were blown away."

Kagome sighed, sitting down in the sand. "So tracking those down just became nearly impossible." She sighed again and picked up a handful of sand, letting it flow through her fingers and join back with the ground. Kagome looked up from the sand and at her traveling companions.

She saw Rolland first, laying on his back with his eyes closed and his hands folded behind his head. Kagome wasn't sure why Rolland was so eager to join them. 'Maybe he was just bored of the artic.' Kagome thought looking at the polar bear demons sun burnt arms, which appeared not to bother him at all.

She then turned her attention to the demon lord from the West standing next to her. She was still slightly fearful of Sesshomaru, seeing as he had tried to kill her friends in the past. But after spending a few days with him, she thought there had to be a reason he kept seeking out their shard hunting group. 'There has to be some object to picking fights with Inu-Yasha.' She thought. Kagome thought back to Sesshomaru's battles with his little brother. Even with Inu-Yasha slowly mastering the Tetsusaiga, Sesshomaru always seemed to be three steps ahead of him. When the battles usually ended, Inu-Yasha was in deep trouble, but when Sesshomaru had the chance for a final blow, he would walk away. 'Could it be that Sesshomaru was helping him?' Kagome thought, eyes widening. 'Sesshomaru might not admit it, but I think that he's helping Inu-Yasha master the Tetsusaiga.' Kagome smiled, feeling her opinion change about the cold demon lord who was currently scanning the land around them.

Kagome was shocked out of her thoughts when she noticed that the two demons were getting taller and taller. She wondered if they were walking towards her, but quickly dismissed the thought seeing as Rolland was lying down and Sesshomaru was standing still. She bent her head in confusion and let out a piercing scream. Kagome was now buried up to her elbows in sand and could feel her being slowly pulled under by what felt like invisible hands.

Sesshomaru and Rolland quickly turned in Kagome's direction when they heard her scream. They both rushed over to her when they realized that she couldn't get herself out. Sesshomaru grabbed hold of the remaining part of her left arm and instructed Rolland to do the same with her right. As they pulled, they could feel her arms slowly slipping out if the sand.

Kagome, now that she had both hands free, grabbed onto the demons' wrists and the two demons moved their hands down to Kagome's wrists in a similar fashion.

The sand, almost as if sensing that someone was trying to take its prey, began to pull Kagome down with a much greater force. The sudden jerk caught the two demons off guard and caused Rolland to fall onto the sand, sending Sesshomaru crashing down with him, causing him to growl in frustration.

Kagome would have laughed if she wasn't in this situation, but instead increased her struggles to get out. She was being pulled under faster then before and was now buried up to her neck in sand. She was still holding Sesshomaru and Rolland's wrists in a death grasp who were now up to their elbows in sand as well. The three knew that there was no way out of this, so they just held still and let the sand consume them.

Sesshomaru was mentally rebuking himself as he got one last glimpse of the sky before going under the sand. He was only under the sand for about three seconds before he felt himself being yanked further down and instead of being engulfed in more sand; he felt his feet break out into an open space. There was one last tug and Sesshomaru was completely out of the sand and quickly falling down a fissure. He felt Kagome's wrist in his hand and saw that she was conscious and could tell she was confused as well. He realized that she probably couldn't tell she was falling since it was so dark. A quick glance to his right told him that Rolland was alive as well and held Kagome's wrist in his hand as well. One quick glance down told him that they were about to hit the bottom of the hole. He knew that Kagome wouldn't survive the fall if she just stayed out in the open and it looked like Rolland was too shocked at their situation to do anything. Thinking rapidly, Sesshomaru pulled Kagome's' body close to his own causing her wrist to slip out of Rolland's hand.

Kagome opened her eyes wide in surprise when she felt herself collide with Sesshomaru. A glance down removed all her fear and she immediately clung to Sesshomaru and shut her eyes.

Sesshomaru tightened his hold on her as he landed softly on the firm ground, hearing Rolland fall to the ground next to him with a loud 'thump'. He looked around where they had landed. They had landed on a hard floor made of black marble. The walls around them and the ceiling they had fallen from were made of sand and there were six glowing green orbs sticking out of the walls casting a green light all around the circular chamber they were in. There was a hallway about fifty feet in front of him which was illuminated by four of the green orbs before disappearing into the darkness. Sesshomaru looked away from the hallway when he felt Kagome begin to move around.

Kagome opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a firm chest. She blushed madly, but made no move to get away. 'I know I'm being held by Sesshomaru,' she thought 'but I don't really want to move. It must be because I just fell about two hundred feet. Yeah, that's it.' She looked up into Sesshomaru's face and saw that he was looking at her as well. Kagome turned her head away and blushed harder and she could almost feel the smugness rolling off of him in waves. She quickly turned her thoughts away from Sesshomaru when she heard Rolland groan.

Rolland stood up and brushed away all the sand that had clung to his clothes. He quick looked around and asked "Where are we?"

"A cave of some sort." Sesshomaru said, concentrating on the hallway in front of him. "And if I'm correct, we're not alone."

His words made Kagome and Rolland nervously look down the hall, where they could both hear footsteps rapidly approaching.

After a few tense seconds of waiting two hooded figures cloaked in brown robes came into the room. The five stood there in silence for a couple of seconds before the taller of the two figures stepped foreword and drew back his hood. It revealed a man in his late twenties with light brown hair and tan skin. He had dark eyes that were regarding Sesshomaru, Kagome, and Rolland with thought. He spoke to the three clearly in a language neither Kagome nor Sesshomaru could understand.

Sesshomaru and Kagome both turned to Rolland and saw that his face was twisted in concentration. After a short pause, Rolland spoke back to the man slowly in the same language. The man's face became grave and he motioned for the figure behind him to step foreword. The figure did so and drew back its hood as well to reveal a woman, also in her late twenties with shoulder length brown hair and dark brown eyes. Unlike the man though, the woman had some kind of animal ears perched on top of her head. She looked at Rolland and softly said something in the foreign language which Rolland replied too much more quickly.

Kagome, sensing it was safe, wiggled out of Sesshomaru's arms and asked Rolland "What's going on? What are they saying?"

Rolland turned to Sesshomaru and Kagome and said "This man asked me what I was doing here. I told him that we had been pulled under by the sand. Then this woman," He said, pointing to the woman standing next to the man "Asked me what I we were doing out here in the desert and I told her that we were looking for the four golden bells."

"Ask him who they are." Sesshomaru told Rolland.

Rolland nodded and spoke slowly to the man. The man frowned for a second before quickly muttering something to Rolland and walking back down the hall. The woman smiled at them before turning and following the man.

Rolland turned to Sesshomaru and Kagome and said "They want us to follow them." Rolland and Kagome turned to Sesshomaru and when he nodded, they followed the man and woman down the dark hall.

The hall seemed to go on forever and Kagome could feel herself getting tired. The green lights seemed to draw away all her strength and made her want to lie down on the ground and go to sleep. Kagome looked around Rolland, who was walking in front of her, and saw that they were nearing another room.

The room they entered was much like the first one, circular with six green lights attached to the walls, but these lights were much brighter then the previous ones and allowed Kagome to see the room clearly. There was a wooden table in the center of the room and there were many maps scattered all over it. The table could seat ten and had wooden stools surrounding it. Behind the table was another hallway with faint green lights illuminating part of it. There was also an identical hallway to the first hallways left and another on its right.

The man and the woman stood behind the table and motioned them to sit. Rolland and Kagome took the offer gladly but Sesshomaru remained standing. The man began to talk slowly, to make sure that Rolland could get everything he was saying. He placed a hand on his chest and then motioned at the woman next to him and then waited for Rolland to translate.

"He says that his name is Derfarious and the woman next to him is his wife Lealaeh." Rolland said.

As Kagome took this chance to better look at the two, she noticed that Lealaeh was very pregnant.

Derfarious began to talk once more, motioning to one of the maps on the table as he did so, occasionally tapping one of the parts of the map to emphasize his point.

"Okay," Rolland began "This is a little longer and I'll translate as best as I can." He paused to collect his thoughts. "Up until twenty years ago the Manerica, that's the name of their tribe, had lived peacefully above ground. All was well until one day when they heard that a great and terrible monster had come and was destroying everything in its path. They ignored these rumors, thinking that there was no way a monster of the size they were describing could make it through the desert, and went on with their lives. About a week later, a neighboring tribe that they had always gotten along with was attacked by what appeared to be a giant snake and completely wiped out save for one person."

Rolland paused in the tale to point out to Sesshomaru and Kagome where exactly the snake had attacked. When he was sure that they were done and ready he continued.

"The sole survivor was in bad shape with long gashes down his arms and legs and a hole in his chest that was dripping poison. He crossed the desert to come to the Manerica to warn them of the danger. He told them of a huge black snake with scales that gleamed in the sun and could disappear in the sand. The most unusual thing about the snake was that the space right between its eyes seemed to be able to put everyone in an almost hypnotic state leaving them helpless so it could devour them. That was all he was able to tell before he died of blood loss."

"Do you think that was one of the bells?" Kagome asked.

"Probably. I've never heard of any other object with power like that." Sesshomaru replied.

"Anyways, the Manerica took this warning seriously and decided to put out guards to watch for this monster. Three days passed and nothing seemed to be going wrong until one day, the guard watching the east side disappeared. One by one, every person who was sent out never came back." Rolland paused. "This next part was harder to understand but what I think he was saying was that a couple days later the monster had appeared out of the sand and when it looked in their direction, nobody was able to move. It began to slowly devour the Manerica while they were standing there helpless. He told me that he believed that the whole tribe was doomed, that is until the sun set. As soon as the sun began to set, the monster froze in its tracks, screamed, and dove under the sand, breaking the spell that had been placed over the Manerica. They decided to come and live under the sand, where the monster would have no power over them and didn't see the monster again for a while after that."

Rolland stopped speaking and looked back at Derfarious who once again began to talk to Rolland, this time motioning to the green lights that were sticking out of the walls.

"Alright, did you get all of what I said earlier?" Rolland asked Sesshomaru and Kagome. When they nodded, he continued. "Good, well the Manerica were safe for another month or so and believed that they had tricked the great black snake. Well one night, when they were all about to head to bed, the snake came barreling through the walls, collapsing many of their recently made tunnels. Again when the snake looked at them, they found themselves unable to move. This time instead of devouring them, it slithered past them and headed to the nursery, where all the young ones were sleeping. It barreled through the door and woke up the children causing them all to scream in fright and then freeze, just like the adults had. All the adults were behind the snake, using whatever they could find to hack at the snake since they had been released from the snakes spell. He said that the snake suddenly froze and let out an ear piercing scream before quickly retreating through one of the walls. This confused the Manerica because they knew that their weapons were having no effect on the monster. After investigating this for a while, they found out that these orbs," He pointed to the green orbs on the wall "Have the same affect on the monster as the sunset does. Although living underground made the snakes spell slightly weaker, it did not stop the monster from coming, so they lined the walls with these green orbs, and they haven't seen the monster since."

There was a long silence before Sesshomaru asked "So what do they want with us?"

Rolland translated the question to Derfarious and Lealaeh and Lealaeh quickly answered him, her eyes pleading at the three.

"They would like our help in defeating the monster and freeing their people from fear. They believe they know a way to defeat it, but none of their people are brave enough to go and face the monster."

"How do they think they can defeat the monster?" Kagome asked.

Rolland once again relayed the question to Derfarious and Lealaeh and replied "The lights on the walls. They believe that if the monster can swallow one of those orbs, or even if one comes in contact with its skin, it will destroy the monster."

Throughout this whole speech, Sesshomaru had been in deep thought. He glanced at Kagome once and Kagome, knowing what he was asking, nodded her head. He turned back to Rolland and said, "Tell them we agree to help."

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Wow that took a along time to get in. I had no good reason for getting it in this late other then I was lazy.

I have a favor to ask of my reviewers. I would like your suggestions on places for the group to go. I already have one in mind (and no, I can't tell you what it is) but I need two more places for them to travel to. I would love to hear all of your ideas and they would be a big help. I guess that's all I have to say. So, thank you all for reviewing!


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